1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fixed focus transducer array used in an ultrasonic medical device and an ultrasonic wave transceiving apparatus using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, an ultrasonic wave transceiving apparatus used in a medical device transmits an ultrasonic signal to an object to be inspected, receives an ultrasonic signal reflected and returned from a discontinuous surface of the object, transduces the received ultrasonic signal into an electrical signal, and then outputs the transduced electrical signal to a predetermined image apparatus, thereby allowing for the inspection of an internal state of the object.
More specifically, as shown in FIG. 1, ultrasonic signals may be obtained by applying transmission pulse signals to a transducer array 100. That is, transmission pulse signals are transduced into ultrasonic signals by respective transducers 110 included in the transducer array 100, and then transmitted to the object. In this situation, in order to raise the resolution of an ultrasonic image, a method of transmitting and focusing ultrasonic waves transmitted from the respective transducer 110 on a focal point along a scan line is used.
Therefore, in the case in which the transducers 110, provided in plural, are arranged in a linear array form, there is a need to control the transmission pulse signals transmitted to the respective transducer 110 in order to perform focusing on the focal point. That is, the ultrasonic signals transmitted from all of the transducers 110 are controlled to simultaneously arrive at a single focal point by allowing transmission pulse signals of transducers distant from the focal point to be first transferred, and delaying the transmission of pulse signals of transducers close to the focal point to arrive relatively late.
In addition, the arrival times of ultrasonic signals reflected from the object to thereby be incident to the transducers are different, according to positions of the respective transducers. The ultrasonic signals incident at the different arrival times, as described above, are transduced into electrical signals by respective transducing elements. In this case, in order to focus electrical signals output from respective transducing elements, compensation needs to be performed by delaying each of times, by a period corresponding to differences in arrival times.
Therefore, according to the related art described above, a circuit for delaying the transmission pulse signal or a separate circuit for performing delay-compensation on the received signal needs to be added, which may cause an increase in a circuit area and a decrease in a processing speed thereof. The above-mentioned problem is intensified, particularly in the case of a small device such as a cellular phone in which a plurality of circuits may be integrated.